“Hello?” I answered.

“Tell me everything you know about Social Networking.”  the voice on the other end of the line said with excitement.

“Sally?”  I asked.

“Oops, yes.  Hi, this is Sally.  Can you tell me if Social Networking will help our current situation?”

Sally has been implementing a business blog for users of industrial shredders.  The concept was originally just for current clients, but we found that the blogging medium worked as a marketing tool too.

I answered Sally’s question, “You get from social marketing that which you put into it.  Why do you ask?”

“I saw on the news today the trend for using Facebook and Twitter were way up.  Should we be using these services?”

We had talked briefly about Facebook and MySpace when we first start working together, but today’s excitement in Sally’s voice suggested there were new enthusiasm for the subject.

“Short answer is yes, but like any other marketing activity it can be very time consuming.  The first thing you should know is because of the popularity, Facebook utilization opens you to predatory internet users.  The risk is manageable, but like with ANY internet risk, knowing the potential is an important factor in protecting yourself.”

“How do they work?”  Ask Sally.

“Every member of Facebook has searchable qualities.  The types of books you like, what college you graduated from, even the city you live in, book store chain you like and place of work can become marketing options for leading people to you.  Turning the equation around, it is also a way for you to research potential markets based on likes and dislikes.  The concept is called Microtargeting and is frequently used in Political campaigns.”

“Can it help drive more traffic to my websites?”

“Yes.  Because your profile has all of your webaddresses, people will find your website when data mining the system.  The question comes down to the quality of the traffic and there-in lies the challenge to social marketing.”

“For example, when you post items in different Facebook forums (or groups) people have an option of adding you as a friend.  If you profile is public, then they can click onto your profile and click on any links they find interesting.  More ooften than not, however, postings you writing will contain links to specific blog articles or web pages.  Everyone in your social network (who hasn’t blocked your wall postings) will see you activity.”

“What is your opinion for our business using Facebook?”

“My initial reaction would be sure, the system is free and there could be creative ways to staff the effort the don’t cost a lot of money.  However, I believe the idea of ‘Online Social Networking’ is a paradox.  More than likely 80% to 90% of your online friends will be people you don’t know nor will ever meet.  If the concept of your marketing effort is to increase word of mouth marketing, then I believe the medium is not well suited.  However, if you are gearing your marketing plan towards gaining more link opportunities, then Facebook could be very effective.”

“I’ll eMail you a link to my feelings one social networking for business.”

Ed Bejarana
BusinessBlogging.net
A division of Zenith Exhibits, Inc.

8:20 am – Arrival at the office.

Look at my desk.  My goodness, that receptionist has been busy.  I only took one day off.  Why didn’t anyone call me about Mr Rhodes?

8:45 am

I need to write the business blog article, but I wanted to talk to Paul and Jose before 9am.

9:15 am

“Everyone, gather around for a minute.  We all know times are tough, but I had to let Paul and Jose go.”

I hate losing good people.  Paul and Jose were both good workers, but someone had to go otherwise I would not have made payroll next week.  All I need to do is get three or four more new accounts and I can hire them back.  I am going to write that article and new customers are going to find me.

10:25 am

“What do you mean the copy machine broke down?  I am trying to write a business…never mind, I’m coming.”

11:15 am

Darn, the article.  A little after eleven.  I’ll never finish before lunch.  I’ll wait and get a fresh start immediately after lunch.

12:42 pm

Ring, ring.  “Hello?  Yes Michael.  No I’m eating.  What?  Where are you?  I’ll be right there.”

2:55 pm

Ring, ring.  It’s the office.  “Hello?”

“Hi Bill.  Mr Rhodes called for you again.  He said nobody came by to fix the sprinkler system again today.”
“Call him back for me please and tell him I am on my way.  Thanks.”

4:30 pm

I am exhausted.  I would have sent Paul and Jose to fix the sprinklers, but tough economy means I’ve got to pick up the slack.  Oh, darn…  the article.  4:30… I’ve got the kids’ soccer game this afternoon.  I’ll outline my article at the game and slam it out tomorrow.

9:45 pm – conversation with Bill’s wife

“Ed said I would have very good reasons why I didn’t write an article.  All I did today was lay two people off and put out fires.”

“Well Bill,”  said Bill’s wife Mary, “How long did Ed say it would take to write an article?”

“He said at first it would take upwards of an hour, but over time I will get faster.  I’m just worried that if today is an example of how motivated I am, I may never get this business blogging thing off the ground.”

“Honey, you can only do what you can do.  Eventually marketing your business will be the most important thing on your plate and then you’ll take the necessary time.”

“You’re right!  The problem is me.  I’m not prioritizing writing high enough.  I’m letting all the distractions of work creep into my life because I don’t really want to write in the first place.  I would rather dig up a broken sprinkler pipe than market and build my business.  Maybe that is why I had to let Paul and Jose go.”

Ed Bejarana
BusinessBlogging.net
a division of Zenith Exhibits, Inc.

“Hi Ed, I have some concerns about blog site performance.  Can we meet?”

I said, “Sure, can you tell me the particulars of your concerns so I can do my research in advance of our meeting?”

“We are getting a good number of visitors to our blog site, but more than half are coming from my company website, we were expecting to get more traffic from the search engines.  We’d like your opinion as to what is happening.”

We set up a meeting time and I started my research.

Looking at the Google Analytics for the blog, sixty percent of the blog traffic was originating from Sally’s company website.  On the surface it would seem the blog site wasn’t performing, but when I looked at the company website’s Analytics account I found the answer.  I made a few notes, printed a few charts and got ready for my meeting with Sally the next day.

“Sally, I am very happy to report that your blog site is performing great.  At this point in time I would suggest we keep the same blog strategy.”

“But we are not gaining high search engine visibility for our blogsite.”  Sally replied.  “Less the 30% of our blog traffic is coming from the search engines, isn’t there something more we can do to capture traffic?”

“Because of the customer focused emphasis, search engine visibility for the blog site will take some time.  You have, however, experienced a significant increase in web traffic and search engine visibility for your main web site.”

I pulled out a chart to highlight landing page visits on Sally’s main website.  “You see here Sally, this chart shows your blog organization page on the main company website is receiving the third highest number of visits.  You organized the blog page on your main site to reference specific articles on your blog site that are helpful to your customers.  Article titles are keyword rich search phrases and because of the reciprocal link, your website has received a much higher relevancy rating.”

I continued, “We want people to find your company blog site on the search engines, but we also want your main website to become more popular because of the extra links.  We have accomplished part two of our goal.”

Sally smiled.  “I was so focused on the blog site performance and justifying the expense to my bosses that I forgot to look at the main website performance.  I see here that web traffic has increased significantly.  Should we be concerned that visitors are leaving our main website to go to the blog site?”

“We need to keep track of the “Bounce Rate“, “Pages Views“, and “Pages/Visit”.  These numbers help us see if visitors are arriving on the blog site and reading more than one article.  A high bounce rate means visitors are immediately leaving the site.  That would be bad, considering most of the traffic originated from the main company website.”

“What is considered a high bounce rate?”

“There is no hard and fast rule.  A bounce rate lower than 50% would be preferable, but for blogs, it is not uncommon to see 70% bounce rate.  Visitors browsing the internet often leave sites with lots of text just because they don’t feel like reading.”

Ed Bejarana
BusinessBlogging.net
a division of Zenith Exhibits, Inc.

To learn more about how we can help you get started business blogging, please call (503) 709-1454.

Perfect Patti’s word echoed in my head with those from all the other business blogging customers I’ve helped. Her issues were not new to me.  Everyone struggles with the idea of social marketing, but Perfect Patti is one of my more challenging students.

“Patti, I hear what you are saying but I respectfully disagree. As I’ve said on many occasions, your writing is fine.  The issue is your standards are too high.”

Patti replied, “How can my standards be too high if my businesses internet visibility is so dependent on the professional image I want to establish?”

Patti’s argument was strong, but I’ve always felt her writing hit the mark on the professional side. She just lacks personal connection with the reader and when she re-reads her articles she feels the absence of personality and rejects the entire work.

“Patti, let’s back up a few steps and talk about a core element of writing a business blog article. Remember when we talked about what makes an article interesting?”

“Yes, you said it was a learned art and that I should use a pen pal to help.  But my problem is I can never complete a first draft of my article so I’m never able to get my pen pal’s input. My ideas are not interesting.”

“Patti,” I interrupted.  “Once you put words on the page it is no longer your call if the article is interesting or not.  The reason we have a pen pal is to allow us, as writers, to focus on the idea and lean on our pal to help with the interest level and typos.  If you constantly write with the filter of a critique, you’ll never get a finished product to your audience because we are our own worst critic.  Part of the reason why we worked to find your best time of day to write was to eliminate the stresses of daily life.  If you are re-introducing them as your own critic, then the writing process will never end.”

“But what if I think my article sounds dumb?”  Patti asked.

“Then your pen pal will not only tell you that it doesn’t sound right, but also how it might sound better.  Writing for your business is a team sport.  You’re the creative director and your pen pal is the editor.  You need to let your editor do their job.”

“That is why you emphasized up front that my pen pal must be someone I trust.”

“Correct.  You are asking this person to step on your heart.  You have given them permission to tear down your inner thoughts with the mutually agreed understand that together you make them better.”

I added, “That said, we do need to talk about the personal contact aspect of your article.  The hardest concept for business owners like yourself to grasp is the idea of being personal.  We are attracting readers as if they are reading a never ending novel.  Your online book, if you will, will be created with the consumer’s interest in mind.  What you write must give the reader a window into your soul.  You should spend less time talking at the reader and more time telling a story.  Tell stories that help the reader.  The reader should be happier after they read your words than before they visited your site.  Give the reader value for the time they give you.”

“I suspect you are going to tell me that I need to use my pen pal to tell me when I’m being personal enough?”

“No, you get that job.  At the core of Personality Based Marketing we are attracting the ideal customer; one who likes the way you think, speak, and act.  One who is comfortable with you just the way you are, where you can be yourself.  There are only two ways you can communicate who you are and what you believe:  speak with them one-on-one or write your personal thoughts.”

I continued, “Sales is about timing.  If your only method of attracting customers is via a sales pitch, then you will only gather prospects who are in the market looking for what you provide.  The problem with the sales approach is it leaves out ALL the other people who WILL be in your market in the near future.  These people are browsing or surfing the net as a source of entertainment.  They are not going to take the time to read a sales pitch for something they don’t need right now, but they will take the time to read about a topic that is of interest.  If you two are a perfect match, then your words will draw them in.  When it is time for them to invest, you already have the inside track.”

I continued, “Your job is to write as personal as you need to in order to give the reader a clear view of your soul.”

Ed Bejarana
BusinessBlogging.net
a Division of Zenith Exhibits, Inc.

To learn more about how business blogging can help you grow your business, please contact me either by phone (503) 709-1454 or by eMail ed@zenithexhibits.com.

After a recent chamber event where I made a presentation on social marketing via business blogging, Bill asked if we could meet.  Bill’s biggest challenge he said, “was being found by prospects in his local service area searching on the internet.”  Bill had looked into pay-per-click advertising but felt the costs were outside of what he could afford.

I took a look at Bill’s website and it was well built.  He had good keywords with lots of search traffic and he also had his location identified such that the search engines would pick him up.  Bill’s problem was the number of competitors in his area and their websites earning a better search results listing.

“Bill, what has been your primary means of finding new customers?”  I asked.

Bill said, “The phone book up until a couple years ago.  It seems people are no longer using the phone book to find contractors.  The last time I received a phone call from someone who found me in the phone book was early last year.”

I explained, “Business blogging is delivering a business message in a human interest story format.  I don’t profess to know much about the landscaping business, but I’m sure there are lots of tips and tricks, design ideas and such you could write about.  The challenge you need to understand upfront is that consistent writing is mission critical.  Once you start, in order to gain the full benefit, you’ll need to write an article a week and every article needs to be a new approach to something internet users find Entertaining, Encouraging or Enlightening.  Do you think you could write that much about your business?”

Bill replied, “I believe so, although I’m not sure how to know what people are searching for.  I assume that is what you’ll teach me?”

“Correct.  I’ll teach you how to do the free research to find what is popular on the internet for your industry and then work with you to make sure you are writing in a manner that the search engines will feel is relevant enough for their users.”

Bill said, “I’ve never been very comfortable talking before a crowded room of people, but I love my profession and have lots of knowledge to share.  Writing articles that enlighten people about landscaping would be very easy for me; but how would that gain me increased internet visibility?”

“Lets examine your own internet habits to see if we can answer that question together.”  I replied.  ”Do you ever go to the internet to find new information or a local business to meet a need?”

“Sure”, replied Bill.

“Do you search on the major search engines like Google, Yahoo or MSN?”  I asked.

“Yes, Google mostly.”

Sensing that Bill was comfortable doing basic searching on the internet I felt a deeper question was in order; so I asked, “When presented with a list of search results, which of the following would you be more apt to click first?  The one that said ‘Buy now and save money’ or ‘My first experience with ABC resulted in an increase in XYZ’?”

Bill thought for a moment and said, “I guess the one that seems less like a sales pitch and more like something that contains information that is useful.”

“Vola!”  I said, “You now know what to write.  Write things that are of interest to your intended readers.  If it would be of interest to you in your search for information, then your ideal customers will also find it useful.  If, however, you feel what you write is too sales pitchy, then like you, your ideal customers will find another link to visit.  The art of business blogging is writing about things your consumer base wants to learn in a manner that does not turn them off.”

Ed Bejarana
BusinessBlogging.net
a division of Zenith Exhibits, Inc.

To learn more about how business blogging can help you business, please give us a call at (503) 709-1454 or to learn more about how to write social marketing articles, please visit our business blogging wiki.

As she took a breath, I said, “Cathy these are all great thoughts, but we need to back up to the beginning and slow down.  Let me read a little of what you’ve written.”  Sally slid over a group of papers stapled together; it could have been four or five pages.  “Great!  How many articles are here?”

Sally replied, “One.”

Cathy had obviously gone all out to prove she could write.   I began reading.

“All in all this article is very good.”  Cathy’s thoughts were clear and concise; she just had dozens of them!  I turned to Cathy and asked, “You titled this article ‘Catching Up’, but what is the goal of the article?”

“I wanted to bring the reader up to speed with where we are today.  I thought this way we could lay the foundation for building great conversations online and even a sense of a community where all of our readers can share their thoughts and learn from them and through these thoughts, I’m thinking, we might even be able to advance the design and development process, the…”

“That’s great Cathy.”  I interrupted.  “You have lots of energy and we will need that.  However you’ve nearly written a book and have scattered the subject matter.  I do believe we have several dozen great article topics here, but let’s back up a little further.  What do you see as the goal behind business blogging… in 20 words or less?”

Cathy sheepishly smiled and said, “I’ve been told that I have a tendency to talk too much.  I see the goal is to give our customers, current and future, a place where they can learn more about our company and find ways to solve technical issues.”

“Good,” I replied, “do you see value in this information for people who are not currently customers of your company?”

“Sure, these tips and technical conversations have lots of value for…”

I stopped Cathy before she was able to get a head of steam.  “Excellent!  How are your non-customers going to find the information if they don’t know to visit your website?”

Cathy thought for a moment.  I couldn’t help but wonder how many words a minute does she think?  I bet she could recite the Declaration of Independence in her head in 10 or 15 seconds.

Cathy spoke, “On the search engines.”

“Exactly, but what is the search people will use to find your article?”

Cathy thought again.  Sally was sitting with a pleasant look on her face, she doesn’t look the slightest bit rattled, I thought.

“I don’t know,” Cathy finally replied.

“When writing a business blog article, you should start at the search to pick a topic.  Google has a free tool you can use to see how many people are searching for any particular search phrase.  Pick five or six topics and condense them down to two or three keyword phrases.  Then use Google’s keyword tool to help you narrow your topic based on the number of people searching for that topic.”

“So if I wanted to write on gear stress or metallurgy break points I would see which one has the higher search volume?”

“Exactly; but that is only a third of the process.  Next we need to understand why a person might search for gear stress or metallurgy break points.  Are they surfing for fun or are they seeking knowledge?”

“How do we know?”  Cathy asked.

“Internet researchers in a 2003 Pew report concluded that over 70% of all internet users use the internet to find information.  Those same researchers say 50% of all internet users consider the web to be a source of entertainment.  Our goal is to give information while entertaining the reader.”

The look on Cathy’s face was that of absolute confusion.  She held back the obvious question…how?

“I see a puzzled look on your face and right now I bet you are thinking how do I do that?”

Cathy said, “You read minds too?  I mean, I am tasked with writing technical articles to help our customers trouble shoot problems with our machines; wouldn’t they feel I’m wasting their time if I tell them a fun story?”

“Yes they would, but telling stories is not the only way to entertain the reader.  Entertainment comes in all different forms.  For some, entertainment is a mystery novel while others like a well written reference guide.”  Cathy giggled.  “You seem like a techno-savvy person, have you ever picked one reference guide over another because you liked the writing style?”

“Yes.”  Replied Cathy.

“Then you already have a reference point for entertaining via an informational article.  A reference guide has dozens of different topics, maybe hundreds.  Your blog article will have only one.  Your blog site then becomes the reference guide that users, and search engines, can search for information they need.”

“Ok.  I understand the difference.  I do buy a lot of reference guides and I have my favorite authors because I like they way they present information, although I never considered it a form of entertainment.”

Sally said, “Actually Cathy, remember last week you and I were reviewing the new operators specs for the Chomp2000 Shredder?  You said the people who wrote the manual probably never had fun because their writing was super boring.”

Cathy replied, “Now that you mention it, there are a lot of technical manuals that are super boring, but there are others that are fun to read.  Why is that?”

“When reading a boring manual, do you feel the writer is talking at you with no emotional drive?”  I asked.

“Yes.  I never thought of it that way, but boring manuals don’t seem to have any human delivery, they just feel like words on the page.”

“There are only so many ways to write ‘turn the red dial counterclockwise until the digital readout reads 12″, but you are not writing the manual.  You are writing the online technical support or reference manual.  When trouble shooting why the red dial might not turn, you describe the solution several different ways finding the one that reads the best.  The way you write will be captured and presented to the internet searcher.  If the list of search results includes one that sounds interesting because it is more human, the likelihood the searcher will click on the link is greatly increased.”

Cathy said, “I guess this will take some practice.”

“Yes.  Ok, we are two-thirds of the way there.  The last part is really the easiest part.  So far we’ve researched the internet to find the popular search phrases because we want to write about things people are searching for.  Then we made sure to structure our articles to be interesting.  Next we need to narrow our focus and strategically place our keywords.”

“Because blogs don’t have the extra page description and keywords meta data that a typical website has, we need to make sure and clearly communicate the topic for our article.  The search engines will score your article based on the contents relevancy to the implied topic.  If you are writing about gear stress you shouldn’t include a section about oil viscosity.  If oil viscosity is important, then you can write a separate article highlighting the important factors.  Keeping your articles focused on a single topic is very important because every time you add a topic point, the search engines must evaluate the value of the content of your article with two or more topics against articles that are single topic focused.”

“Lets recap.”

1.  Write about topics people are searching.
2.  Write to entertain as well as inform the reader.
3.  Write on single topics.

Ed Bejarana
BusinessBlogging.net
a division of Zenith Exhibits, Inc.

To learn more about business blogging, please visit BusinessBlogging.net or call us at (503) 709-1454 to learn more about how we can help you start your blog today.

In preparation for our meeting, I  looked up Pete’s company website.  I found that he worked for a telecommunications company in downtown Portland.  Their web site was well built, but it had a few too many keywords and the site organization could have been a little cleaner.  I noted that Pete’s company had a blog site, but there hadn’t been any new articles in several weeks and the articles online were unfocused sales pitches.

I arrived at The Big Buzz Coffee Shop about ten minutes early, ordered a medium Coco Sugar Buzz and secured a table that would be comfortable for our meeting.  The coffee was good, but the music was a bit too loud, the wall decorations were on the wild side and most everything in the room was distracting.

Pete arrived ten minutes past the hour with a binder in one hand, loose papers nearly falling out and a legal note pad with a couple dozen pages turned, exposing just a few blank sheets for taking notes.  Pete entered the coffee shop quickly but did not appear to be in a rush.  He was dressed in casual business attire and appeared to be hip to the local fashion trends.

Pete spoke first.”Sorry I’m late. I got held up at the office with some last minute paper work and lost track of time.”

“No problem”, I replied.  “I’m glad you could take some time to meet with me today.”  I offered to buy Pete a cup of coffee while he got settled.  While standing in line I couldn’t help but notice Pete seemed comfortable in this very busy, noisy environment.  I ordered Pete a medium Coco Sugar Buzz.  While waiting for the coffee I began to wonder if I should have ordered Pete a decaf.  I returned to the table to find Pete had a stack of printouts organized loosely in his now open binder and his legal note pad ready for taking notes; but no pen.

Pete told me he had recently been promoted to Manager of Electronic Communications and one of his duties was to use the company’s blog site to increase search engine visibility.  Peta said, “I’ve blogged before, but never for business.  I don’t really know how to get started.  It seems like the articles my predecessor wrote had little to no impact and your chamber presentation opened my eyes to the possibility.”

We talked a bit about Pete’s job history and his back ground in writing and social networking.  Armed with a better understanding of Pete’s motivations, back ground and company resources I felt we were ready to proceed to the next phase–organizing our first article.

I asked Pete, “Who are your ideal prospects you would like to attract?”

Pete thought for a moment and replied, “I don’t think we want to limit ourselves to doing business with any one type of individual. We would like to do business with anyone and everyone.”

“Of course, the goal is definitely to attract people of all sorts to your website, but I like to start with the low hanging fruit.  Writing for your ideal customer will help you learn how to business blog.  The process of blogging is just that; a process with a beginning, middle and an end.  We will create many articles over time and the entire collection of articles will represent something of interest for all your company’s target audience.  But individually each article should be focused on just one product or service for just one type of customer.”

“Oh, I get it.  I should start by writing about things I’m very comfortable with for people I know really well.  Then I can write new articles about different topics and different target audiences and by having all of those articles together on one blog site my eitre site can reference everyone.”

“Excellent,” I replied.  “You have some homework to do.  First you’ll need to do some keyword research.  You can use Google’s Keyword Tool to help you find popular search phrases for one of your products or services.  Make note of all the top keyword searches because those phrases are related to one another in Google’s database.  We’ll use a combination of these keywords when we write.”

Pete was taking notes so I paused to give him a moment to catch up.  He then asked, “Does it matter which product or service I start with?”

“Yes.  You should start with your most popular product or service.  Using Google’s Keyword Tool you’ll get an idea of how people are searching for associated keyword phrases.  These keywords will become your categories and opening sentence statements.”

“Next, make a list of ideal customers.  What type of businesses do they run?  How many employees do they have?  Where are their businesses located: downtown or the outskirts?  Are they experienced business people or first time business owners?  Pick one type of customer and start writing.”

“When writing there are two main things to keep in mind.  First, don’t make a sales presentation.  Your ideal customers are not browsing the net for new phone systems; they are browsing the net for entertainment or answers to questions.  Second, keep your articles single topic focused.  Don’t try to solve all the world’s problems in one sitting.  Your articles will be located in the same place and readers can browse or search through all your articles if they wish.”

“Once you get your first draft written, eMail it to me and I’ll give you my feedback.”

“This sounds kind of laborious?”  Pete replied.

“There are several steps and at first they do take time; but no marketing plan is easy out of the gate.  They all take some time to internalize and become comfortable.  Once you understand the process you’ll be able to write articles in about an hour.”

Pete asked, “Is there anything else I should know?”

“Well, since you’ve asked, yes.  I suggest you seek a comfortable, quiets work environment to write.  Noisy environments slow down the writing process and negativity affects the writer’s vision.  What you write should be a snap-shot of your mind’s eye, telling a tale of one aspect of your business.”

Ed Bejarana